Hannah Playhouse

Downstage Theatre (1964 to 2013) was New Zealand’s first and longest running regional professional theatre company. It is most strongly associated with Hannah Playhouse, the purpose-built performance space. Actors Peter Bland, Tim Eliott and Martyn Sanderson and Victoria University professor Donald McKenzie, as founding director, formed Downstage Theatre Company in May 1964 then joined with restaurateur Harry Seresin to create a performance space and restaurant. Downstage Theatre started putting on shows in a corner of the upper floor of Seresin’s Walkabout Coffee bar which was on 2 Courtenay Place, the corner of Courtenay Place and Cambridge Terrace. Popularity grew and soon Downstage took over the whole upper floor for performances. 

In 1968 Downstage was gifted a significant sum of money from arts patron Sheilah Winn OBE, granddaughter of shoe entrepreneur Robert Hannah, through the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council. They used this money and contributions from public fundraising and Wellington City Council to purchase the site of the Walkabout Coffee bar in 1969. They continued to use the Walkabout Coffee bar building until plans for a purpose-built theatre building were finalised and demolition began. Downstage then moved to the Star Boating Club (29 Jervois Quay, on the outer edge of Whairepo Lagoon) in 1971 while their purpose-built theatre, including restaurant, bar and shops was being built. 

Hannah Playhouse has an initial design by Ronald M Parker of Auckland but what is built is designed by James Beard from Wellington. Beard at Gabites and Beard designed the new building, Hannah Playhouse, named in honour of Winn’s legacy. Hannah Playhouse was designed in the New Brutalism architectural style, this is seen in the use of concrete and steel and how the functional requirements of the interior influence the look of exterior. Downstage Theatre occupied the Hannah Playhouse building from its completion in 1973 until the company disbanded in 2013.  

Throughout its history Downstage Theatre relied on public funding, in the late 1980s there was a funding campaign to raise money for new seating, the campaign aimed to fund 300 seats. Individuals and companies were able to sponsor a seat or a row at the cost of $200 per seat. 

The Downstage Theatre experience combined performance, dining and drinking within one space. The combination broke down barriers and increased accessibility to theatre for the public, though not without controversy, as some within the theatre sphere felt dining lowered the theatrical art. Hannah Playhouse theatre floor was designed to seat up to 200 people, around 150 diners and 50 people in the aisles, depending on the stage configuration. Productions can be staged in any part of the auditorium floor area. The innovative and creative use of platforms and seating produced a theatre environment with a multitude of arrangement possibilities. Downstage Theatre’s kaupapa appears to have been to create a small, local and professional theatre where professional actors could have permanent employment.